There is no doubt that Texas workers in the oil and gas industry put their lives on the line every day. Some say oilfield workers do not do it for the love of the job, but instead for the love of money. Regardless, they have the same rights to safe work environments as workers in any other industry.
The following statistics indicate the level of deadly dangers oilfield workers face:
In some cases, workers indirectly connected to oilfield-related jobs lose their lives. One example is a man whose job it was to haul oil in a truck and then transfer it to storage tanks. One of his duties involved obtaining oil samples. He instantly lost his life when he opened the hatch of the tanker to take the sample and was overcome by the deadly fumes of hydrogen sulfide (H2S).
This worker’s surviving family members sued the company, and they ultimately agreed to a settlement. Families might be eligible for death benefits through the Texas workers’ compensation insurance system. However, if a third party’s negligence caused their loved one’s death in the oilfield, they might have grounds to file a civil lawsuit as well.